Every Creator Is a Startup
For years, agencies treated creators as talent. Book the brand deal. Take the commission. Repeat. That worked when YouTube was mostly cat videos and TikTok was just a dance app. But here’s the reality in 2025: every creator is now a business in motion. Agencies that don’t recognize that are already behind. Creators as Founders Think about it. A YouTuber starts with daily vlogs. Soon they launch a podcast, collab with a skincare brand, release merch, maybe even sell a scripted series to Hulu. That’s not just talent management, that’s a full business portfolio. Creators today look a lot like startup founders. Their product is their personality. Their seed funding comes from their audience. Their Series A is when brands start writing checks. And their IPO? Selling out arenas, building companies, or creating IP that lasts beyond them. The best creators already play this game. Emma Chamberlain didn’t stop at YouTube, she built a coffee brand. MrBeast isn’t just doing challenges, he’s ...